Diversity & Inclusion in AdTech
And why its important for decision-making in the advertising industry as a whole
One of the greatest joys in working for technology startups is that feeling when your team collectively finds a viable solution to a complicated problem. As a product manager, the satisfaction I feel when working through a tough problem with my team is second to none, regardless of how uncomfortable it may get. Having worked through hundreds of tough problems throughout my career, I have found that the more uncomfortable the conversation, the better the final solution, assuming of course that all team members involved are respectful of one another. The reason that these conversations become uncomfortable is that hard problems have many ways of being solved, leading to difference of opinions on solutions. Having diverse perspectives surrounding the benefits and tradeoffs of all possible solutions will more often than not lead to the best solution.
One of the themes I‘ve noticed around the diversity and inclusion conversation in the tech sector is that it tends to make people uncomfortable. This is one of the reasons that while I have recognized the well-documented lack of diversity in the ad tech industry, I’ve never felt comfortable enough to speak openly about it. With that said, to eventually get to the most optimal solution, its imperative that we continue having these very uncomfortable discussions.
What Makes D&I Important to Ad Tech?
While ad tech companies have been around for the better part of the last two decades, the industry is just beginning to reach its maturity. The Ad tech companies that are focused on proving meaningless KPIs are beginning to get left behind while the companies that are focusing on the end-user experience from the top of the funnel to the bottom are winning out. You can verify this by looking at any ad tech company’s current mission statement, which would include some variation of:
“Our goal is to make internet advertising more welcome and friendly.”
This shift could be attributed to many things, including the increase in devices users are leveraging to consume internet content or the influx of ad blockers and walled-garden content producers & providers. To me, its clear that this trend will continue, and in order to survive ad tech companies will need to understand their end users better than ever before.
Global Advertisment Consumers
My theory is that diverse and inclusive groups working together will lead to more innovative solutions for the ad tech ecosystem as a whole. Ad tech needs to not only get smarter, but also be more creative. One example of this could be seen in ad personalization whether it be dynamic creative ads or retargeting. In depth knowledge of cultural differences within society could help find creative ways to better target users in a friendly manner. One rudimentary example is understanding how differences between bandwidth capacity in certain parts of the world affect certain user’s ad experiences. A high impact ad with a heavy k-weight on a mobile device in Silicon Valley will perform differently from a mobile device from a user in a rural area or a third world country.
One argument against the need for diversity and inclusion is that readily available data already provides companies with an unbiased outlook of the advertising ecosystem. Globalization means that businesses need to wholly understand their users across the world and not just in their backyards. While data helps shed light on geographical and social differences at scale, at most, it takes us only half way through the journey. In order to truly understand differences in a meaningful way, technology leaders need to either experience these differences first hand or openly speak to people who have experienced them.
Where do we go from here?
Many organizations are reconciling with the fact that diversity and inclusion does indeed play a key role in driving technological innovation. There have been countless studies on the topic, including some interesting findings from Forbes and HBR. While these findings help shed light on the topic, it will take more than studies to move the needle in an industry that has been fairly homogeneous since it’s inception.
As with most tough problems, real change will come when Ad Tech leaders begin to have tough, inclusive conversations around the lack of diversity in the industry. One really interesting initiative is the iDiverse Task Force created by leaders in the IAB: https://www.idiverse.org/diversity-inclusion-task-force/
There are many other groups that are focusing on solving this problem throughout the tech industry as a whole, which gives me hope for a more diverse and inclusive workforce. That will in turn lead to better technology that truly takes into account the diverse group of users that are leveraging these solutions to solve their unique problems.
Herry Pierre-Louis is a Product Manager at native ad platform, Sharethrough. He is experienced in the ad tech ecosystem with previous product stints at Xaxis and Spongecell. He is passionate about mentorship for under-represented youth and making the high tech workforce more diverse.
